Archive for May, 2011

How do you become post-racist if you are pro-racial? Listen to 1:04 again, “white Americans have never been taught to think of themselves as a specific ethnic formation in the broader context of American ethnicity or race.” Yet, the black community does nothing but.

Although some have heralded recent political and cultural developments as signaling the arrival of a postracial era in America, several legal and social controversies regarding ‘‘reverse racism’’ highlight Whites’ increasing concern about anti-White bias. We show that this emerging belief reflects Whites’ view of racism as a zero-sum game, such that decreases in perceived bias against Blacks over the past six decades are associated with increases in perceived bias against Whites—a relationship not observed in Blacks’ perceptions. Moreover, these changes in Whites’ conceptions of racism are extreme enough that Whites have now come to view anti-White bias as a bigger societal problem than anti-Black bias.

The study examined equal numbers of whites (209) and blacks (208), asking them their perception of discrimination against each group by decade since the ‘50s. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most discrimination, Blacks saw anti-black bias (discrimination) against blacks declining from 9.7 in the ‘50s to 6.1 in the ‘00s, and anti-white bias increasing from 1.4 to 1.8. Whites, on the other hand, saw anti-black bias drop from 9.1 in the ‘50s to 3.6 in the ‘00s, but saw anti-white bias increase from 1.8 to 4.7.

The study makes the claim that whites see racial relations as a zero-sum game. I strongly disagree. Zero-sum gaming implies that there is competition, of which there clearly is not. Whites are not allowed to compete based on race, not just socially, but legally. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said,

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

The content of character. Abilities, not cosmetics, would dictate the day and our relations with one another would be based on our faculties. The best man for the job- not the best white man or the best black man. Which brings us to this:

CHICAGO — The City of Chicago must hire 111 black firefighter applicants who were passed over for jobs years ago and pay tens of millions of dollars in damages to about 6,000 other black candidates under a ruling issued on Friday by a federal appeals court.

What? You mean to tell me that Chicago was intentionally keeping the black man down!!!

Well, not exactly.

In 1995, 26,000 people took an employment test to become firefighters.

The city said anyone who had scored above 65 was considered “qualified,” but chose its initial hires from random sets among candidates who scored 89 or better, a group it deemed “highly qualified,” court documents say.

But after complaints were filed, the city conceded that the 89-point cutoff created a “disparate impact” against black candidates — 6,000 of whom had gotten qualified scores — compared with white candidates, the documents show.

Ahem. So this really was about the content of character. It was about ability, faculty and professional qualifications. Random sets from highly qualified scores were deemed discriminatory because a large percentage of blacks didn’t achieve highly qualified scores. I’m sure it will be comforting for the people of Chicago to know that their firefighters will only be qualified, but at least they’ll be proportionate by skin color. Being highly qualified based on the content of character- that’s sooooooo racist.

At some point, you would think the notion of true equality would enter the equation, but I wonder sometimes if this is really about equality. I personally find things like affirmative action as insulting. It explicitly implies that blacks cannot accomplish academic and professional achievements on their own, that the bar must be lowered- just for them- because they are deficient. If I was a black person, I would take enormous umbrage at that. Why would black people accept the premise that they are not good enough on their own to achieve certain things? I believe it boils down to identity, of which there are two very important components:

The first is blackness. There is a litany of sources that celebrate and emphasize being black. Black Entertainment Television, Ebony, Jet, Black Entrepreneur, Black Chamber of Commerce, Blacks in Government, etc, etc, etc. If there was a white entertainment television, everyone would be up in arms about how racist a TV station it would be- regardless of content. An Ivory magazine? Dream on. Whites in Government? The American Civil Liberties Union would be licking its chops. There is a billion dollar industry focused on being… black. Celebrating the cultural aspects connected to race is one thing, but these don’t champion the historical connections of history, they just focus on being black. It is hard to get past skin color when the entire identity of a certain portion of the population is built around skin color.

The second is victimhood. Like being black, there is a billion dollar industry built around black victimhood. People like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Tavis Smiley, Michael Dyson, Henry Louis Gates, Cornell West, etc, etc, etc, they have all made millions around the premise of victimhood.

But this is the tragedy of it all, the causal relationship that has been made between blackness and victimhood. IF you are black, THEN you are a victim. This has removed an incredibly important feature from black society: responsibility. If you are a victim, then you can’t be held accountable. It’s not their fault. Nearly 75% of black children are born to a single mother- it’s not their fault. Black on black crime is some 90%: it’s not their fault. Black incarceration rates are through the roof: it’s not their fault. A black woman is fives time more likely to have an abortion than a white woman, but it’s not her fault. Nearly 50% of black males drop out of high school: it’s not their fault. There has been created this common culture where people are not held accountable for their own decisions.

And frankly, the rest of the population is well aware of this. Watch your average hip/hop or rap video and you will see the celebration of money, violence and the complete disrespect of women. The black culture has centered itself, intentionally, around selfish material gain. The only one that counts is numero uno, and if others get hurt, well, that’s how the gamez paly’d yo. We’z in this for dead Presidents, bitches, so step the fuck off.

But let’s bring this back to the study in the context of a “post-racial” Administration. Really, post-racial? I think one of the biggest lies to come out of Campaign 2008 was the meme that this President and his Administration were somehow going to be post-racial. In fact, from early on, it was demonstrated that there was going to be a doubling down on race. Enter stage left: Henry Louis Gates.

Obama, without facts or a clue, immediately implied racism. Why? Because a white police officer had arrested his black friend. Why? Because his black friend, Henry Gates, flew off the handle and immediately tossed out the race card because some white lady, in concern for Gates property, had the nerve to call the cops (who happened to be white) when she thought she saw someone breaking into the property (which had been broken into before). When the facts of the arrest were availed, it became pretty clear that both Gates and Obama were a couple of asses that devolved in one step to the lowest common denominator of race.

Unfortunately, this was not the last time we would see racism flow out of the Administration. The epitome, the iconic, the one and only, Eric Holder. We could talk about the sense of disfranchisement that comes from the Attorney General of the United States referring to a certain ethnic group as “my people”. After all, is he not there to represent ALL of us? No, the thing that elevates Holder to levels of racist extraordinaire would be the Department of Justice refusing to prosecute voter intimidation because the victims were…wait for it…white. This, the same man who said that the American people were a bunch of “cowards” for not discussing race relations.

Or, we could point to the constant, ubiquitous chorus of talking points that equate criticism of Obama=racism. According to the left, there are a whole host of racial codes words, which apparently only they know. It has gotten to the point that any criticism of Obama, like pointing out that more people are on food stamps today than ever, is code for racism. What? Statistics are racist?

The fact of the matter is this: white people are regularly scapegoated for racism on a regular basis, for being none other than white. If I, as a white male, and a black male both apply for a school, or a job, or a grant, etc, and we are both equal on paper- the same grades from the same school with the same experiences- the black guy is going to win out because he is black, which is exactly the same thing as saying that I am going to lose because I am white. Blacks, who once chaffed under the notion of winning based on skin color are now championing this very practice. Last I checked, was it not the entire purpose of the civil rights movement to ensure that exactly this type of behavior was to be done away with?

It is no wonder that white people are becoming ever more conscious and concerned about what amounts to blatant racism. And seeing our President so easily and comfortably slip into the racial role does absolutely nothing to ease those fears. Most of us have never once used the term “nigger”, yet the black community does it all the time. What’s the difference? Most of us have never once blamed our academic or professional failures on the skin color of others, yet the black community does it all the time. Adrean Peterson, the running back for the Minnesota Vikings, had the audacity to call professional football players modern day slaves. He’s slotted to make $10.2 million dollars this year for playing a game. Yet, so easily, the race card is tossed flippantly and without a care.

No, white people do not look at race relations as a zero sum game. However, we recognize racism when we see. If you want to see a mutually beneficial racial relationship, stop making race the center of everything. Take responsibility for your actions, or the lack thereof, stop blaming others for things they’ve never done.

(CNN) — The Department of Defense is looking into ways to “pump up the security” for the team of Navy SEALs who helped kill Osama bin Laden after the commandos expressed concern for their safety and the safety of their families, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

As I read this article this morning, I could not but feel a sense of sadness, frustration, and then anger. We in the counterterrorism community recognize that there is a constant security concern. Those in elite covert positions, like that of SEAL Team 6, do a tremendous job in protecting themselves and their families.

What angers me is that the threat to the SEALs does not stem, directly, from al-Qaida. Al-Qaida doesn’t know who they are and where they are, nor does it really have the capability to ascertain this information. No, the greatest threat to the SEALs right now is… the White House. Continuing from the article:

“Frankly, a week ago Sunday, in the Situation Room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden. That all fell apart on Monday, the next day.”

We rely not only on our own ability to navigate and function in society in a discreet manner, but we also rely on the system to maintain its integrity; that those in positions of authority honor the oaths they take to protect those of us in sensitive and/or dangerous positions. This is clearly not happening.

Obama, though claiming otherwise, has worked hard to make the Usama bin Ladin operation political payoff for him. His incredibly transparent victory lap has sought to work in the best photo moments, looking for those signature iconic pictures that will convince the American people that he is a ‘warrior’ after all. We have even seen Obama use the bin Ladin operation in his stump speeches:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you for getting bin Laden.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, there you go. (Applause.) Case in point. (Applause.) It should inspire us to finish what we started. Because of you, we were able to prevent a second Great Depression. But in the next few weeks, in the next few months, the next few years, we have to make sure that the new jobs in industries of our time are created right here in the United States of America. We have to make sure that America is prepared to win the future.

Now, I won’t completely begrudge him of patting himself on the back and using the success of the bin Ladin operation towards his reelection campaign, but when the politics of his getting elected exceed the security of those at the tip of the spear- that’s dangerous.

This president has not been the beacon of hope vis a vis terrorism. In fact, he’s been quite the opposite. The bin Ladin operation essentially cleans the slate from the failures of Hassan Nidal, the Christmas Day Bomber and the Time Square Bomber. Likewise, his efforts to close GITMO, which was an instrumental component to the process that lead to bin Ladin, are not all that inspiring. I am not convinced that he gets it. I fully expect that, in the name of political expediency, he will do whatever he can to drop out of Afghanistan, setting the stage for us to dragged back into the situation a few years from now.

Now keep in mind, Obama needs all the help he can get- and the left is doing all it can to give him that help. There seems to be this new collective argument on the left that the bin Ladin operation somehow makes up for our high unemployment, out of control spending and dismal economic progress. Granted, it is a feather in what has been an exceedingly bare cap, but it by no means makes up for, or superceeds these other critical issues. Obama’s reelection will be based on the economy, not terrorism. In fact, one could venture that, at this point, foreign policy issues can only hurt Obama, not help him. He is operating on a very small margin of error at this point, and once a GOP frontrunner becomes clear, that margin will only get smaller.

We collectively should be proud of ourselves. Contrary to what liberals would have you believe, the American people have been exceedingly patient and courteous to our Muslim citizens. Violence against Muslims in the U.S. is exceedingly low. Likewise, our patience in dealing with the various armed conflicts in southwest Asia, while tiring and frustrating, have been critical in demonstrating the resolve necessary to complete the missions. None of us like war, especially those of us who have actually been in a combat environment. The missions in Afghanistan and Iraq (I won’t mention Libya because I have no clue as to why we are there…) have merit, will bear fruits and deserve our continued resolve.

I am sure that I am not alone when I say, “Don’t politic at our expense.”